What's The Difference Between Minimum Wage and Living Wage in St. Louis?

Missouri has a minimum wage of $7.65, slightly above the federal minimum wage requirement of $7.25. However, workers in St. Louis could get a boost from efforts by some city officials who aim to increase the wage to as much as $15 an hour by 2020.

Other cities are increasing the minimum wage for their residents, including Seattle, which approved a gradual increase to $15 an hour. Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that cities can have higher local minimum wages than the state if they are approved before the end of August 2015, according to The Associated Press.

Urgent: Do You Think the Minimum Wage Should Be Raised?

The state minimum wage has gone from $7.35 an hour in 2013 to $7.50 in 2014 before reaching the current level, according to the Missouri Department of Labor.

St. Louis is an independent city, but borders along St. Louis County, which is part of the St. Louis metropolitan area. A living wage for an adult in St. Louis County is $9.94 an hour, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Institution of Technology. An adult with one child would need to earn $20.55 an hour to reach living wage standards. The living wage for a working adult with two children is $24.27.

An adult with no children making minimum wage would be above the poverty wage of $5 an hour, the MIT report notes, but an adult with two children would need to make more than $9 an hour to be above the poverty level.

Vote Now: How Do You Feel About the Minimum Wage?

A full-time minimum wage worker makes nearly $16,000 a year. A living wage salary for one adult would be at least $20,675 a year, according to MIT.

Occupations below the living wage for one adult, according to the MIT report, include food preparation and serving, which has a typical salary of $18,560, and personal care and service, which earns about $19,130 for a typical worker.

Many occupations in the state make above the living wage estimate, including sales, office and administrative support, farming and forestry, healthcare support, maintenance, protective services, transportation and material moving, and high-level professional jobs.

Tell Us: Should the Government Raise the Minimum Wage?

Related Stories:

• What’s the Difference Between Minimum Wage and Living Wage in New York City?
• What’s the Difference Between Minimum Wage and Living Wage in Seattle?